Rise (again), Ramfest. Boo! is back.

photos : jezebel

A good festival brings out the animal in everyone. A great festival makes you feel like a god. A dirty, drunken, delirious god. But a brilliant festival brings sexy back. Even if it doesn’t wear the pants. By which I mean. Ramfest. February 2010. Boo!

Noja. Boo! is back. Or, at least, two thirds of it- awesome Ampi Omo and Chris Chameleon plus new drummer Riaan van Rensburg. The original monki-punk outfit with Leon Retief rocked the SA independent music scene and rolled the European and American independent music scenes until a sudden cessation in late 2004. How we howled at the last CT gig. How we screamed and boo!ed and danced as one and broke our feet while they broke our hearts. It was no use. Boo! tucked its tongue away. But not its spirit.

I’m often accused (quite rightly) of speaking in tongues, so allow me to spell something out a second. If a torrid past and a florid present have taught us anything, we’ve learnt well from our mother of a fatherland. Spirit is stronger than silence, (and from the holy streets of Hollywood and the narrow streets of Broadway we learnt that “the show must go on”. and from a Queen of sorts. Who then pegged.) Did we really think that was it when Chris went crooning off to capture new audiences? Perhaps we did. God knows we have issues with faith in this place. Suitably admonished and astonished, we’ve had no time to hang our heads in shame since the good news came, but we’re still scratching them. Who would’ve predicted Ramfest to herald the return of dandy-trashing, cross-dressing and wickedly wondrous popmosh melodies that made Boo! a subcult classic act? It’s obvious, considering Boo! and Ramfest share a penchant for passion, vision, insistence on quality and creativity. But difficult to imagine in what is perhaps a bit of a beleaguered 2009. It’s almost over, kitlings. And Summer has started…

We would have matched the two, of course, if we’d invested as much imagination in possibility as Ramfest has on manifesting your dream through blood, sweat, tequila and tears and the execution of resurrections.

The festival (the phenomenon) is raring with a daring that sets it apart on the circuit – it’s entirely independent, insists on quality line-ups, is responsive to the whims and wishes and wants of a consistently growing annual attendance. All told, Ramfest is the most fun you can have in the summer sun by a river with a tent. I promise you’ll be drowned in good sound. And there are no sharks. In the water. (negotiate the weed rate). The simple reason for this is that the Fourie Bros are hellbent on bringing you a festival that they’d want to go to. That’s their beginning, their brilliance and their bottom line.

But back to the future. One of their wily ways of ensuring this is to stir the soup of silence, and gooi mos a few choons we haven’t heard in a while. They understand recycling. They understand nostalgia and originality. They understand that there’s place for the past in a party – lots of it – and that music is timeless, too. Ironically, timing and pop culture have conspired to be on the side of the alternative festival of late. The current flux of all things bloody and vampish on big screen and flat screen makes the living dead a hot topic. Think True Blood (and watch it!), Twilight (and don’t watch it!), Let The Right One In (and let it in!12 dec. Labia on Orange). This synchronous timing is helping them make a name for themselves by raising the dead. As it were.

They’ve done it before. Of course, glytchy, tetchy cult heroes Lark hardly had a chance to bury themselves as a decomposing lullaby before they were brought back by the Ram. The result of this resurrection is that they have something to believe in and prefer to play Ramfest exclusively once a year (with a nationwide tour attached; lucky you).

And even if you’re not into timelines, actually, especially if you’re not, festivals are an amazing place to meet the music. Everyone is safe, happy and contained enough to go crazy in a neutral, shared space. Same goes for resurrections of disbanded/long-silent bands - they work wonderfully as a once-off and the exclusivity of authentic, original (in both senses) music has incredible appeal, but such treats rarely seem to signify any real return to the scene or gratify the frenzied fan. Though not everyone is a fan at a festival. In fact, we’re quite used to putting up with acts we don’t like - that’s part of party democracy. But what counts for just about anyone at a festival is the experience. In the moment, it’s less about whether a band is on sabbatical or has disbanded, and more about the fact that here is music you like (and maybe miss), madness that makes your day (and night), the chance to mosh and froth and clap and talk crap at the feet of the music makers. But at the same time, many festival fans are indeed dedicated music fans, and what counts to them is whether Boo!’s comeback will be a one night stand or the start of something beautiful (again).

For answers to this and other itchy, testy questions, read Chris Chameleon’s take on Boo!’s return, Ramfest 2010 (it’s got balls) and who wears the pants in Leopards, lizards and afterlives (and maybe a little on the side from Leon)

Leopards, lizards and afterlives – Chris Chameleon on bringing Boo! back

PHOTO: Renée Frouws

With his many manifestations, songwriter, singer, presenter, producer (and erstwhile soapie actor) Chris Chameleon is easy to recognise and hard to reconcile with any single identity.

Better known as the ageless songbird of contemporary local-is-lekker listening, his definitive lyrics and licks are busy as an undiseased bee in Europe and Africa (apparently ours are stronger. Evidently we are unsurprised. I’m talking about bees, not live music audiences; that would be surprising). Quintessentially, his signature melodies boast intelligence and inspiration and his vocal chords are more likely misplaced hermaphroditic acrobats (and without having met the man, I know he could say those last 3 words seven times fast).

If you’re less an acoustic folk and/or treffer innie taal lover, and none too young, you’re more likely to remember him best as the lead lady of a wild trio of punky monks better known as boo! And even if you don’t, you’re going to get a chance to taste the legend (or at least listen to it) at Ramfest in February 2010, because …well, let him tell you why. His sartorial flair could teach Trish and Tramp a thing or two, but his sarcastic wit could cut an interrogator IN two. Luckily jezebel is a bit shifty, herself, and offers you a few of the many colours of a chameleon in a corner.

jezebel : is a boo! reunion a matter of synchronicity or publicity?

Chameleon : A problem I have faced almost constantly since expanding my career into its Afrikaans incarnation has been expressing the side of me that is decidedly boo!esque. I’m versatile and I don't see myself committing a career to one genre - I have no idea how artists do that. I am equally comfortable in Afrikaans volk, English folk, rock, punk and classical music and have applied myself liberally to all of these in the last 5 years since boo! My occasional forays into the wilder format have more often than not been met with shock and/or confusion by my new found (and largest) fan base. That’s when I realised that it would probably be best to express this side of myself through the name I built with boo! I put 7 years in 17 countries of my life into boo! And to let it slip is counter productive or simply stupid. And so I decided to revive boo! As a vehicle to more thoroughly express my full range without the damaging consequences of confusing an audience that has been spoon fed packaged and boxed commercial art for decennia.

jezebel : boo! parted ways hardly speaking to each other, and you've performed boo! material with aplomb without them since. So why did boo! agree to play Ramfest 2010? (Nostalgia? To boost the Chris Chameleon brand on the rock scene? to make peace?)

Chameleon : boo! didn't part ways. If you read the press release at the time you would have noticed the other guys 'announced their resignation'. If you resign from your day job at Debonairs pizza tomorrow it doesn't mean Debonairs pizza no longer exists or has the right to, you dark humoured bitch. The other guys resigned, boo! never ceased to exist. I own the boo! trademark and all boo! material was written by me and is copyrighted in my name. I love those songs and will always want to play them.

jezebel : for the fans, the real question is, are you considering seeing each other casually again?

Chameleon : Ampie and I have worked together extensively in the past year, notching up a Kanna award for the best production across all genres at the KKNK, and an Innibos award for most popular production. We are musical soul mates and have been making music together since 1988. In the space of 21 years four years constitutes a brief repose, hardly a quiver on the Richter scale. Leon and I had coffee last week. (ok, ok, I had coffee, he likes cola). Leon has moved on in life. He has become a major force behind the scenes in SA music and is doing a lot to formalise the business, ultimately for the protection of musicians and creating order in an industry that lags behind the rest of the world for exactly those reasons he is addressing. In ten years time his efforts no doubt will have changed the musical landscape in SA. And I hope he is remembered properly for his efforts. He is however beyond drumming now, and Riaan van Rensburg takes his place.

jezebel: if you were to reform even on a part time, fests-only basis like Lark does, what would you change?

Chameleon : there is no part time for us. Ampie, Riaan and I are all full time musicians. We're going to give this our all. What would change? mmm... I think I might not work in a dress anymore. But I am big on alien androgyny and will lean that way.

jezebel : At the last Boo! gig at Mercury, I bought what turned out to be an unofficial boo! release, awful quality - apparently something done without your involvement. Is that true?

Chameleon : at the time I was dulling the pain with a cocktail of substances, I can't remember what you're talking about.

jezebel : "Bootlegs" are a dubious form of marketing, because fan(atic)s will buy them just to check, even if they're poor quality. If they are kak, illicit recordings, it doesn't do the band's image much good. But it stands to reason that this form of unsolicited (and legally problematic) material reveals a certain enthusiasm about a band, a certain public impact. What are your feelings on fake takes and fan footage? (video and audio)

Chameleon : anyone who tries to stop the flow of information is an idiot. I’m not fond of having my worst moments on some crappy YouTube video filmed by a cell phone. But I wouldn't spend a second trying to stop it. The pros far outweigh the cons. Besides. This is the new big brother. The state needn't pay agents to sit in rooms full of TV screens a la George Orwell's 1984. The new big brother is your uncle and auntie and best friend and the guy next door with their video cam and their salary is the sensation-hungry audience being fed by the pony press and television. How do you fix that? Not by prohibition Mr. Kim Il Yong, but by being at the top of your game at all times.

jezebel : in keeping with this line of questioning/suggestioning, will there be boo!tlegs again? But perhaps high quality ones? Official unofficial ones? B-sides recorded over the years across Europe, maybe? It would be nice (and lucrative) if there were a RamBoo! to take home with us...

Chameleon : personally I’ll only put out stuff I think is good, that I like (having said that - the question remains: how did 90% of our albums get out then? We knew how to make bad recordings, that's for sure). But I can't stop the fans.

(to clarify : jezebel actually meant special releases by the band @ Ramfest, but perhaps that’s a premature expectation or something was lost in translation.)

jezebel : most people who deign to go to their reunion dress up to the nines. Please, please tell us you're going to wear your lingerie...?

Chameleon : I always wear lingerie. but not mine...

*

Find the pop version of this story in issue 17 of One Small Seed magazine.

http://www.ramfest.co.za/
http://www.chrischameleon.com/home/chris is for sale : http://rhythmmusicstore.com/store/search.asp?q=chris+chameleon&x=41&y=12

boo! is not (yet) but if you scream really loudly at ramfest, they might hear you. (and Johnny Foreigner, Pendulum and Lark and Tidal Waves and lots of others might, too!)

seeing as Chris had such nice things to say about Leon (and bands like Taxi Violence agree enough to go global with his company, Southern Pulse), perhaps we should give the mic to the man who's hung up his sticks to take SA music to the world...first and former boo! drummer Leon Retief presiding:

jezebel : i'm interested in what you think of a boo! reunion. Excited? Nostalgic? Cynical?

Leon : There is no reunion. Just a formation of Chris, Ampie and Riaan.

jezebel : As a visionary and facilitator for the expansion of SA music, do you think there's space for boo! in a global market? (now, a few years on)

Leon : That depends what the plans are. Things have changed a lot and in certain terms boo! was ahead of its time, but that too has caught up and surpassed the independent notions and philosophies of boo!

boo! probably still stands a better change of making it internationally than locally.

jezebel : in your professional opinion as a booker of bands and instigator of tours, will the boo! brand have suffered from what we shall diplomatically call its 'sabbatical' (as Chris was quite trite about it), or will it bounce back?

Leon : The challenge lies to convince the new generation of music lovers. I have no doubt that Chris and Ampie will do a good job, but whether the new generation will embrace this, we will see.

jezebel : Young bands abound and most of the people at Rocking The Daisies were under 24. Do you think the younger ones will consume boo! with as much appetite as the (now older) ones did before?

Leon : It is hard to say. Many young people listen to Madonna and U2, when these are even older than Chris and Ampie. However those bands stayed prolific and kept changing with the times. boo! was never period based, so this kind of originality works against the band. Chris has a very distinctive persona and branding as solo act, so it is even harder to shed. Having a wardrobe change is not enough and the younger generation will see through this. They would have to come up with a serious strategy and commitment to make it work. Ampie has always been a kid (in a good way) by heart, so I don’t think it would be difficult for him to relate to a much younger audience. I know I can’t party like I use to, so I know for a fact the after parties will be lot more tamed than way back in the day.....

jezebel : If you had time, would you don the monki-punk attitude and rhythm again, or do you apply it liberally to your current projects, anyway?

Leon : No ways. boo! was just way out crazy times....I loved it and had the best time of my life, but this to was only a phase of my life and I know when it is time to move on. I am very much settled in the world of less experimental ventures and more thought out projects.

http://www.chrischameleon.com/home/

http://southernpulse.co.za/

how much for an hour? http://rhythmmusicstore.com/store/search.asp?q=chris+chameleon&x=0&y=0

who are the real pawns?

 

Against all odds, aKING have made a kak second album and lost a former fan. I’m sure they don't care, though, because riding on the respect and attention they deservedly received for their Dutch courage debut and clinching catchy,  tried-and-tested formulas in round two, they're going to be making lots of money with this abortion. I mean album.  Album! 

Luca Vincenzo broke it down brilliantly here    but forgot only to remind us of the one thing we always knew:  this was coming all along. While we somehow opted not to believe it when we were busy being seduced by ‘I Believe’ and tucking in to ‘Safe As Houses’, it was clear from the start that aKING targeted a commercial audience, and would continue to do so in their professional and personal commitment to their blossoming careers. When their music had merit, I had no issues with that - success stories are sexy. But things have changed. By their own admission, the members of the band are getting on.  Babies might be made and bonds will one day want to be paid. So why on earth would they keep sleeping on people's couches as paupers? The transition from talent to tuppence is not new in our flailing (creative) economy -  some of the most inspired music makers have managed to make music make money for them. After a decade of delinquent Monkipunk creativity, our own Kris Akkedis sat down with his guitar, a sweet smile and a casual suit, and bought himself a farm from singing someone else's poetry. The mantra is obvious - why starve when you can sell? My question is, can we imagine a world where we can sell (and buy) music that hasn't sold out to the aggregation of mass taste ? And do we know how we perpetuate the catch-22 that keeps commercial kak?

 

Beyond the bruises of a bad album (all it takes is a good one to be friends again), it's the hiatus between the media, the music and the public that I suspect encourages creeping mediocrity, extracting craft rather than creativity from the arts.

 

Considering the high quality and unique character of their first album (arch, accessible pop rock), and assuming they've consciously invested their musical intelligence in their second round compositions to make them even more accessible than the first's (though, yes, deeply diluted and almost without identity – perfect for high rotation), would they be focusing on the pop side of life if they could make money from the music they hear in their heads? One wonders. And while their undisclosed answer is their truth (because maybe they want to make music this way, and maybe that's great, or maybe they'll never admit how much of a motivation money is in the way they make music - though we do try ) in the absence of any answers, we turn our eyes to the System...

 

With its monopoly on local minds, mainstream media successfully breeds mediocrity in print, pixel and widescreen by discouraging critical content and punting PR-esque coverage to the local music it does feature (when advertisers allow). Those who try to place content about music with character or tell the hidden stories about a creative sector responsible for cultural commentary and potential cohesion are quickly and frequently shot down and shut up (and then, when they then do it independently, they are shot down again. But never shut up.).

 

For its part in the pie of compromise, it seems the public is not quite ready to relinquish the critical blindfold bequeathed it by a dead dictatorial regime, either (one that threatens to rise again in a new, politically correct skin. showerhead included). It refuses to think for itself, taking its cue from what it sees and reads, which is ripped from the band biog which was written by someone’s adoring girlfriend.

 

Continuing the conundrum, mainstream media knows almost nothing about local music, and rarely bothers to learn anything, taking its cue of cool from the SAMAs and MTVs of the world, saying ‘but our readers don’t care about music’ or ‘no, no, that band isn’t trendy enough, I don’t care if they’re changing the way Stellenbosch dresses’. Speakerbox is entirely exempt, of course. And not just because they let me use rude words.

 

And music, for its part, struggles and hobbles along, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bad, generally ill educated in business strategy, replete with addictions and identity crises, defiantly independent or leashed by a label, trying to make a living off itself and get its message out there.  The result? No meeting of minds. No synergy. No, local is not lekker, people will say. Because they don't know. Or won't.

 

So.

 

if media realised that local music is a cultural commodity worth generating content about,

 

if the public explored the love of local and discovered something new to do at the weekends,

 

if music had a bit more self respect, set some boundaries when it comes to gig fees and good PR and demanded decent sound rigs and sound engineers,

 

we might, against all odds, be able to invest in and enjoy and profit from a form of entertainment so powerful it reaches right into the South African subconscious.(or you could just blow your vuvuzela  and feel part of the love)

 

In any case, whatever aKING does next, or music, the media or the public don’t do, we deserve a new mantra.  Beware of the wolves, my baby.

 

lyrical wishes

Dear God

I'd love to listen to

• A duet with Zolani and Thandiswa

• Chris Chameleon versus Inge Beckman in psychedelic vocal gymnastics

• Black Betty and the Diesel Whores in the same gig
  

• a stripped-down, acoustic ditty with Sanni Fox and Joshua Grierson (voice.guitar.heaven.)

• another ditty by Sanni Fox and George Van Der Spuy. just voices.

in the meantime, i'm really liking the spring birdsong at 5am. thanks.

Amen
Jezebel

chameleon and the king

July has been thin in the air but thick on the ground for good sound.

this year the G-spot boasted perhaps a slightly overfull bill of theatre, and the fringe was thick with it. i managed to catch one good gig in between nits and knitting (don't ask; i was there in a domestic capacity which was hardly festive)

Chris chameleon and Neo muyanga live and loving it at de taphuis

take two talented men, let them sing their songs, then make them sing together and you've got a night of great entertainment.

thing is, nothing guarantees chemistry between performers. luckily both have it in abundance, and it bounced well together. Neo is supercool, chris is crazy cool. their wit is poles apart, and it made for some lovely faux pas's and a little light sparring. and they never missed a beat. neo did chris, chris kissed Neo's bits (uh, beats), and i hope to high heaven (coz the low one seems full) that Old Mutual's efforts will inspire them to collaborate further.

imagine the lulling lullabies from blk sonshine's key man hummed by the former Boo! man. imagine the reposed Neo doing his versions of Chris's edgy everything. (he tries to tame it, he really does, but nothing can swaddle the things that man juggles in the back of his throat)

we were wowed. and the G-spot got hot enough to call itself by its full name : gig town.

bring it on, old mutual. we like your style. (they did it with other artists too, you know. ... well, yes. you know what the music scene is like...)

http://www.oldmutualencounters.co.za/INDEX.HTM